Thong-Kum and Thong-Tang, believed to be the world’s first set of male twins, are just two-weeks old and are reported to be in a healthy condition. One onlooker had travelled from a local town just to see the rare phenomenon. “I can’t believe there are twin elephants, I have heard they are so rare,” she said.
Elephant twins occur very rarely, and due to the nutritional needs placed on the mother, their survival rates are often low. Thailand’s other pair of elephant twins, females Jim and Joom, were born in 1993, but one sadly died nine-years-ago. In January 2005, twin elephants were born in Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa. They were the third twins to be born in the history of the park. Twin elephants were also born in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, in 2009. Again they were the third set to be born there in the history of Chitwan.
Elephants in Thailand are held in high esteem and are a national symbol, although their population has plummeted from 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to around 4,000 today.
reported by The Telegraph